With a newborn baby in the house, sleep is at a premium. So while I’ve actually written three posts since Monday, I haven’t published one of them.

Why?

Because I couldn’t deliver anything that stood a chance of at least meeting your expectations. So I chose not to post anything.

And that felt great.

I realize that everything we deliver won’t be a hit. But when we finish a project on time and it isn’t good enough yet, we have a choice to make:

1. Disappoint your customer, or
2. Push back the delivery date.

The next time you have something that isn’t good enough (yet), remember that one choice feels a lot better than the other.

I don’t want to be surprised when my dentist uses his electric drill. I don’t want to be surprised when I pick up my car from the service department. And I sure don’t want to be surprised when I bite into my deli sandwich.

But if you want me to help spread your story, then you’d better do something that hasn’t been done before. Sure, this feels risky at first – but I guaranty that if you always play it safe, you’ll never surprise anyone.

There’s a better way. And it can lead to growth that is more sustainable, predictable and profitable than ever before.

Do things FOR people instead.  Don’t push, lead. This takes a lot of effort, but it works – just ask Gary Vaynerchuk.

Every day, more than 80,000 people visit Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV to learn about wine. There they can watch videos (for free) about everything from decanting to training their palate. The site is an incredible act of generosity that has fueled a movement.

And even though he has more than a million connections across social networks, Gary V still encourages people to email him directly with questions. While I can’t get a return phone call from my CPA, Vaynerchuk responds to everyone.

This approach is brilliant.

Why market to an audience when you can lead them instead?

Yet often the first marketing act by new business owners is to put up a sign like this one.

Why?

If I liked the business before you got there, now I’m worried that it won’t be nearly as good.

If I didn’t like it, a sign announcing your arrival won’t encourage me to try again. I’ve already moved on, remember?

Here’s a better idea: forget the sign. Tell me a new story instead.

Now, imagine that one day the moon decides to expand its reach. Rather than focus on dominating a natural niche (the nighttime sky), it moves into the sun’s market.

What should the sun do?

Actually, nothing. And that’s the point.

You can’t lose to competitors that don’t exist.

There are niches everywhere, and new ones show up every day. If you haven’t found one yet, don’t worry.

Your opportunity is coming.

Every company has one. The problem: some can’t resist the temptation to tell stories that don’t match reality. In other words, they lie to customers.

To prove this point, let’s take a look at the stories told by Apple and Pets.com. One story is true, the other is a lie. Not surprisingly, one company has flourished, and the other is out of business.

Pets.com: Pets Can’t Drive campaign (1999 – 2000)

The Story: pet food, supplies and toys for consumers focused on price and convenience.

Truth or Lie? Lie. While Pets.com initially delivered on price, this wasn’t sustainable (the company lost money on most items sold because they undercharged shipping costs to attract customers). But the real lie was about convenience. When customers placed an order, they had to wait several days to receive the items. And when you need kitty litter, you need it now. Trust me on this one.

Apple: Think Different campaign (1997 – 2002)

The Story: people with passion can change the world for the better.

Truth or Lie? Truth. The story asserted that Apple nurtured creativity by behaving as unconventionally as the accomplished thinkers and doers who were praised as “the round pegs in the square holes.” The company lived this story in every way: it’s packaging, product design, online computer store, and retail outlets. The campaign didn’t work because it was creative; it worked because Apple was fully dedicated to the story it told.

The challenge you face is clear: you need to tell a story. To make it authentic, you need to live and breathe this story every day, from how you answer the phone to the way you deliver your product.

Start by asking yourself two questions:

1. What is my company’s story?
2. Is it true?

I never believe: what you tell me.

I sometimes believe: what you show me.

I always believe: what I tell myself.

It’s my perspective that counts, not yours. If you want to change my mind, don’t talk to me about features and benefits – it’s not effective (personally, I get defensive or annoyed).

Want to change my mind? Persuade me to do something?

Make an emotional connection instead. If you take any other approach, I’m gone. Right along with your hopes of a sale.

I’ve really had it with your approach.

I don’t know you. You don’t know me. Which means that you haven’t earned the right to reach out to me directly.

I’ve repeatedly asked you to stop, but you refuse. In fact, attempts to contact me have increased in frequency. Today one of your people called me ten times in five minutes!

As such, I regret to inform you that I plan to launch a crusade against all forms of SPAM. More to follow on this soon.

Remember, just because everyone won’t complain about your methods doesn’t mean you have permission to use them with me (or anyone else).

Still, there was one moment of slight discomfort at dinner (Mom, read the entire post before you pick up the phone) – sharing what we were thankful for in our lives. My list was usually unoriginal. I was thankful for my health, my family, and parents who were forgiving and patient with me (I didn’t make that easy). I was desperate for material. Why? I had it good, didn’t realize it, and sounded insincere as a result.

I may have been bad, but when it comes to thanking customers, companies are much worse. Terrible, actually. Need examples of corporate insincerity? How about a holiday newsletter that talks about…the company. Or generic, bulk email sent with Constant Contact. The list goes on and on.

How do you show customer appreciation?

If your efforts might be seen as insincere, stop what you’re doing. The core objective is to tell your customers how much you care about and appreciate them – if you can’t do that, don’t bother.

To help point you in the right direction, take a tip from GoDaddy.

GoDaddy is my hosting provider. I’ve been with them for a year, and never had the need to interact with them. So when they called the other day, I assumed that they wanted to sell me something. I was wrong.

GoDaddy: Ed, this is Jeffrey from GoDaddy. This is just a courtesy call – I wanted to see how things are going with your account and answer any questions you might have. Do you have a few minutes to talk?

Courtesy call? Right. He wants to pitch me on something. OK, I’ll bite and see where it goes.

Me: Sure. Go ahead.

GoDaddy: Great. I noticed that you have several hosting accounts. Are some of these client sites, or does each one belong to you?

I explained that they were my sites, and gave him a brief overview of my goals with each one.

GoDaddy: Those sound like interesting projects (his tone was genuine). You know, since you own each website, there is a way to save money on your hosting.

Here it comes: the sales pitch.

GoDaddy: What you can do is consolidate these websites under one account.

Huh? That would save me money.

Me: Really? I thought that each site required its own hosting account.

GoDaddy: Not necessarily. If your site uses an SSL certificate, then that’s true. Otherwise, you can choose a site as the primary domain, then add secondary domains to that account. You’ll be fine as long as you stay within the space limitations of your hosting plan.

I’ll send you a link to our Help Center – you can find answers to questions about the process there. And if you get stuck, call us.

I couldn’t believe it.

Me: Thanks for this information. You just reduced my hosting costs by 50%!

GoDaddy: I’m glad we could help. Is everything else with your service OK? Do you have questions I might be able answer?

Me: No, not right now.

GoDaddy: Well, we really appreciate your business. If there is anything we can do for you in the future, please let us know. Have a great holiday!

I read a lot of blogger debates about the right way to thank customers. Phone vs. email, gifts vs. cards. These are the wrong arguments.

The tools don’t matter. Caring does.

Your objective: thank customers in a way that shows you really care. Do it like GoDaddy, and your customers might just thank you instead.

No one cares about a blog if someone isn’t blogging. I haven’t done that in quite a while, which has turned this site into an inanimate object (for now).

It’s no different with anything else. Do you care about fish? Paint? Bicycles?

I’m fairly certain that my friend Mike doesn’t care about fish, but he loves fishing. Just like others have a passion for painting or bicycling.

My challenge – and yours – is to clean up grammar. To change what we do from a noun to a verb.

Do that, and people will care.

Belief in the mission matters. Do you believe in yours?

“All that my customers care about is price.”

Be honest – have you ever said those words? If so, I’ve got news:

You’re right.

But do you know why?

It’s because you haven’t really given customers much else to care about in the first place.

“No…” I smiled, wondering if she would persist.

“Would you like to become one?”

“Not really.” Then, of course, I got curious. “How many people say yes?”

“Almost no one,” she said. “But I’m supposed to ask.”

No surprise there. Loyalty programs, once something of a novelty, don’t actually work. Consumers are smart enough to know that they’ll wind up with too much SPAM and a weekly newsletter they don’t want to read. Yet companies love to push them.

Here’s the tip: real customer loyalty has nothing to do with a program. If the experience or product is great (think The Apple Store), then we’re in. That’s it – no discounts, freebies or plastic cards necessary.

My son’s first baseball game was more exciting than expected. After spending the first four innings watching a back-and-forth struggle, one of his favorite players hit a grand slam – the giant home run that changes the outcome of a game.

Not surprisingly, the media coverage that evening focused almost exclusively on this particular moment in the game. Apparently, the little things that occurred earlier in the contest weren’t as fun to talk about.

But sports teams that rely on the home run cannot win over the long term. Neither can entrepreneurs and business owners.

That sure hasn’t stopped them from trying. Companies love to develop business plans that are little more than a series of attempted home runs. And while occasionally someone hits one, this approach doesn’t lead to sustainable growth.

A better strategy is to concentrate on hitting singles. It may be less exciting, but think about it this way: if you try for home runs and miss, you’ve accomplished nothing. Modest wins, on the other hand, mean that you’re always growing. And over time, steady growth will transform even the smallest of firms into a powerhouse.

Which is a lot better than the occasional big inning.

Shawn (@shawmu on Twitter) just launched the Wake Up and Shake It Up blog series. Need a push to think bigger than you have before? Here it is.

The first post, Big versus Small, went live this morning. I think you know the author – check it out.

A company’s story can’t be about convenience, low-cost, premium-value, and great selection.

A politician can’t talk about lowering taxes, increasing services, attacking bureaucracy, and reducing the deficit.

A Little League coach can’t preach health and fitness to his team and then sneak a cigarette while the kids are running laps.

I realize that it’s hard to take a stand, to tell people what they don’t want to hear. But it does no good to change your story to suit your audience. Sooner or later people will figure out that you don’t stand for anything at all, which means you’ll be gone tomorrow.

If you want to improve your presentation skills, there is no one better to study than Apple CEO Steve Jobs. His keynotes captivate audiences – and you can learn to do the same. Communications coach Carmine Gallo breaks down his methods in the video below.

Here is a summary of the Jobs presentation approach:

1. Create a headline that sets the theme. Make sure that it is clear and consistent throughout your presentation.
2. Provide an outline. Then open and close each section with a clear transition. This makes it easy for others to follow what you’re saying.
3. Generate enthusiasm. Nothing is worse than a listless presenter. Remember, great communicators don’t transfer words – they transfer emotion.
4. Make numbers meaningful. You should back up your points with numbers, and those numbers should be expressed in context.
5. Make it visual. Limit bullet points and text. The more data you put into each slide, the more likely it is the audience members will start checking their PDAs.
6. Create a memorable moment. Identify this ahead of time, then spend your presentation building up to it. Jobs is known for keeping audiences in suspense waiting for his “one more thing” – a traditional joke he makes before announcing the next big thing at the end of his keynotes.
7. Rehearse. No one – not even Steve Jobs – can pull off an intricate presentation with video clips and demonstrations without hours of rehearsal. If people are willing to invest time listening to you, then you ought to be willing to spend the time necessary to create a polished presentation.

There is another kind of follow-up that seems hard, but really isn’t. And since it takes place in moments other than when a sale is on the line, it’s much more powerful.

I’m not talking about generic thank you emails or satisfaction surveys. They’re boring, and do nothing to create customer loyalty or referrals. What I mean is someone from the company connects with the customer in meaningful way.

Let’s use an easy example: high-end restaurants. People aren’t dining out as much these days, and those that do are typically buying cheaper wine and ordering fewer courses. To lure customers in, many restaurants now offer value menus or run promotions. Fine. But the only time they follow-up with a customer is when confirming a reservation.

What if they decided to follow-up with patrons in a simple but unconventional* way? Someone from the restaurant could call to ask how dinner was the night before. Or the wait staff could send handwritten thank you cards to their customers. And if those doing the follow-up are empowered to resolve problems, than you’re much closer to establishing an emotional connection with your customers than you were before.

This small act is inexpensive, and chances are it will do more to generate repeat business and referrals than advertising ever will.

*This is unconventional for a restaurant, which is why it might work. The point here is that you need to figure out what is unconventional for your business and act on that.

We’re in the midst of the 22^nd recession since 1900, and so far it’s been an ugly one. And while the rate of job losses has recently slowed, many companies are still in retreat – freezing salaries, raising health-care premiums, and eliminating training programs.

If you’re a linchpin, this is an incredible opportunity.

I was privileged to attend the book launch in New York City. During the presentation, I learned that the original title of the book was The Chef, The Cook, and The Dishwasher.

In a restaurant, the dishwasher is clearly the lowest job available. Someone will always have to fill this kind of role, but that someone doesn’t have to be you.

The cook follows a recipe – make a particular dish one way, every time. Everyone can follow instructions, so it should come as no surprise that there are a surplus of people available to perform these jobs. And since a cook doesn’t create any real value, they have little hope of making more than an average living.

The chef is different altogether. A chef may be aware of recipes, but chooses not to follow them. Which means that unlike the cook, her best work is completely unknown. By creating instead of following, she turns her work into art.

In the post-industrial age, the artist is the one in demand. Linchpin is the type of book that will push you down this path. It goes on sale today (January 26th). I hope that you’ll pick up a copy – it is by far Godin’s best yet.

Of course not. But we will need to make changes if we expect this year to be better than the last.

Start by ignoring the negative news. Research after the economic downturn of the 1990′s found that those exposed to excessive negative news reports had lower levels of motivation and engagement than those who ignored the news entirely.* Remember, sometimes media folks will overreact to something in order to make a point.

Second, redirect your energy on new ideas. Fortunately, Seth Godin compiled a (free) ebook that will help you get started. “What Matters Now” was written by more than seventy big thinkers – contributors include Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk, Hugh MacLeod, Dave Ramsey – the list goes on.

To download, click on the ebook cover above. Or simply go here.

Some of the ideas will apply to you; others will not. But each one will get you to think, and hopefully lead to even bigger ideas when you discuss what you’ve read with others.

Here’s to a great 2010!

* I made this up. See what I mean about making a point?